1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device in which control is made by semiconductor devices that are formed by using a crystalline silicon film. The invention can be applied to MIM, passive matrix, active matrix, and other liquid crystal display devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, techniques of forming thin-film transistors (TFTs) on an inexpensive glass substrate have been developed at high speed. This is because of an increased demand for higher-resolution liquid crystal display devices as display media of multimedia.
For example, in an active matrix display device, thin-film transistors are provided for millions of respective pixels arranged in matrix form and charge to enter or exit from each pixel electrode is controlled by the switching function of the thin-film transistor. Image display is performed by controlling the amount of light that passes through a liquid crystal panel by changing the electro-optical characteristic of a liquid crystal in accordance with an image signal supplied from a data line. Since a voltage applied to the liquid crystal is desired to be constant until the next writing, the image signal potential is held by a storage capacitor for a given time.
As a driving method of the above type of liquid crystal display device, the IPS mode now attracts much attention in which a parallel electrode structure is employed and the device is driven by controlling an electric field that is parallel with a substrate.
A liquid crystal display device driven by the IPS mode is featured by a large viewing angle, high contrast, etc. and has thin-film transistors, gate lines, data lines (source lines), pixel electrodes, a common line, and a common electrode extending therefrom in a pixel area on the same substrate.
In particular, in the IPS mode in which a lateral electric field is controlled, each pixel electrode is interposed between common electrodes that are arranged parallel with the pixel electrode so that an electric field applied to the pixel electrode does not influence other pixels etc. Since a certain area should be secured for those electrodes, the open area ratio (aperture ratio), i.e., the ratio of an area which transmits light for display, of the pixel area is lowered.
Further, to secure a sufficient charge holding time, a liquid crystal display requires a structure in which a storage capacitor is added to a pixel electrode. This is not limited to liquid crystal displays driven by the IPS mode, but applicable to conventional liquid crystal display devices.
However, the provision of electrodes for forming storage capacitors (capacitance electrodes) could be a factor of lowering the open area ratio (aperture ratio). In view of this, a technique has been proposed in which capacitance electrodes formed in the same laser as gate lines also serve as a black matrix (U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,181). However, this technique still has a problem that the capacitance electrodes cannot fully serve as the black matrix because of a problem relating to parasitic capacitance.
Another technique has been proposed in which a storage capacitor as mentioned above is formed by utilizing an area where a pixel electrode and a common electrode overlap with each other (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei. 7-36058). However, it is expected that as the degree of electrode miniaturization increases, the area where to form a storage capacitor becomes smaller, making it impossible to secure a necessary and sufficient capacitance. If it is attempted to form a storage capacitor having a necessary capacitance, the area occupied by the capacitance element will necessarily become large, to lower the open area ratio (aperture ratio).
Conventionally, the light quantity of a backlight is increased to compensate for a low open area ratio (low aperture ratio), to thereby secure necessary brightness of a screen. However, because of increased power consumption, this is a large obstacle to incorporation of a liquid crystal display device into devices that are required to be portable.
As described above, a technique is now desired which can secure a necessary storage capacitance without sacrificing the open area ratio (aperture ratio). To improve the open area ratio (aperture ratio) with the IPS mode, it is desired that the electrode width be reduced to less than 1–2 μm. Although submicron or even finer patterning techniques have already been established, they are now encountering difficulties in mass production, resulting in delay of technological progress.